Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was prompted to rise today because of my awareness of the state hospital systems in regional Western Australia. They are in an absolutely deplorable condition and, with the Prime Minister’s announcement of financial assistance to the Mersey hospital near Devonport, Tasmania, there is now a call from Western Australia that the federal government may wish to contribute financially to the running and rescue of Western Australian hospitals. I would like members of this House to be aware of some of the disastrous situations in Western Australia that we may be asked to contend with and fund to once again pull the tardy Western Australian Labor government out of its financial doldrums.

There are about 80 hospitals operating across regional Western Australia and the majority of them are in my electorate. There is a very modern hospital in Karratha—certainly it was built after 1978. It is supposedly well equipped, cyclone built and able to act as a shelter. It is a very safe building, with every modern convenience. It is well staffed and has great facilities, but it cannot deliver a baby today. Women living in the Karratha/Roebourne/Dampier/Wickham area now have to go to Port Hedland or Perth to have a child. It is a deplorable state of affairs—and it gets worse.

Tom Price Hospital, which was always going to be there whilst the services at Paraburdoo Hospital were reduced, is now threatened with closure. Paraburdoo Hospital, which was once a thriving hospital delivering babies in the community and attending to incidents at the Paraburdoo mine—and, of course, the occasional road accident and weekend-evening trauma that is unfortunately suffered in some of my constituencies—is doing a wonderful job. That hospital now has just one person on duty overnight. On the weekends, because of state failure once again, the two police officers in Paraburdoo shift from Paraburdoo on a Friday evening and do not return until Monday morning. So you have a hospital with one staff member on duty all night. That person has to answer a call at the hospital emergency door from possibly a group of people under the influence of some chemical who may have done damage to themselves or suffered damage from somebody else. They knock at the door and one person in the hospital has to make a decision as to whether they open that door and put their own welfare at risk, or deny access to the person and perhaps deny them the treatment they need to sustain their life. They cannot call on the local police to come down and assist, should it be necessary, because the nearest police are in Tom Price, about 45 minutes away or more.

All of these services are funded by the state government. The state government are culpable for this disastrous level of servicing in Western Australia. Now that we have announced funding for the Mersey hospital, they say, firstly, ‘We condemn you for daring to dabble in state affairs because the Constitution says that we are rightly looking after the hospitals in our state.’ But then they say, ‘But we really expect you to fund us more to look after our hospitals.’ When we came up with a practical solution of direct funding we were criticised for dabbling. So it is a no-win situation for us and, from a public relations perspective, it is a win-win situation for the states. I have outlined what a dreadful job the state government are doing in a couple of places with state funded and state directed regional services, be they hospitals, police forces or educational facilities, right across the electorate of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Yet the Labor Party, with their mismanagement and their inability to coordinate a vision for the future, aspire to take over federal government. They think they are fit to rule this country and to head it into the future for the good of all people in this nation. Their track record in the states indicates that they would be battling to run a good booze-up in a pub.

I would like to bring to the attention of the House just some of the consequences if—and I underline ‘if’—this Labor Party took over federal government. Many of the listeners, of course, will not be aware that after 13 years of Labor government the debt was increased from some $16 billion to $96 billion. Thirteen years under a Labor government saw an additional $90 billion worth of debt suffered by every Australian. No wonder interest rates were high: $90 billion worth of extra borrowing by the government put pressure on the availability of funds for all Australians. The price had to go up. Just watch them do it again.

Not many people here would realise that one of the checks and balances put in place when the GST legislation was put together was that governments in federal control could not abuse the system and suddenly put consumers at a disadvantage by increasing the percentage of the GST. It was agreed, by all concerned, that the only way there could be an increase in the GST percentage was by agreement between all state and territory governments and both the Senate and the House of Representatives federally. That would be the only circumstance under which the GST percentage could be increased. We have that situation looming. Right now we have all states and territories under Labor control and the possibility of Labor being elected to federal government. Watch out for any attempt by the states to get their hands on more money via collection of the GST.

Something else that comes to my attention is the fact that in this election year of 2007, with our youth for the very first time going to vote and to exercise their wonderful democratic powers and advantages in this nation, anyone aged between 18 and 29 will never have suffered in this country under a Labor government. I say to everyone: the Labor years were hard years. I bore bridging finance interest at 24 per cent. I know how hard it was. I worked for a company where there was ‘no ticket, no start’. I had to be a member of the BLF, the dreaded Builders Labourers Federation. So anyone who is unaware of the drudgery and the depths to which a Labor government can drag us should come and see me—I will give them the goods.

More importantly, some people out there are saying: ‘Don’t worry, MPs of this country. Don’t worry, leaders of this country. The Liberal Party—with the coalition, of course—has held the reins now for nearly 12 years. We believe in a fair go in Aussie, so why not let the other mob have a go? After all, it is fair.’ We know what they did in 13 years of government: they ruined this country. It took us the best part of this 12 years to bring it back, to put it ahead and to put it in a condition where everyone had a job, everyone had an opportunity and there was something to look forward to in this nation. It is not a footy match. It is not a matter of being fair and giving the other mob a go, because they will fail. They have a track record of failure, and they will do it again. So to everyone who has a love of this country and a belief in its future: get a good head on your shoulders, realise how bad it could be with a Labor government federally and make sure that you stick with a good government, a government that is led by this coalition of the Liberal and National parties.

Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It must be a day for hospitals. Since 6 November 1980, when the then Premier Neville Wran announced plans for a new 250-bed hospital—valued at more than $30 million in those days—Wagga Wagga has witnessed successive state governments, both Labor and coalition, shift blame, break promises and announce funding as quickly as it has been retracted. Both governments have ignored rallies with thousands of people in attendance and, more importantly, the deaths of many individuals over a period of time which may have been avoided if we had had a facility that this city dearly needs. I have outlined this issue many times in various places, and I have a major issue to confront here as I try to outline the issues associated with the failure to deliver promised outcomes for the Riverina.

We have a converted, old and dysfunctional Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. It has been converted into a regional referral centre. It has had no attention to ensure the adequate capacity of the structure to accommodate such a move. There has been no money for capital works, and the morale of the wonderful staff is at an all-time low. They are forced to work in the most disgraceful conditions, and it is out of pure dedication that the fabulous staff continue under these conditions and under these circumstances.

To put the plight of the Riverina in perspective, it may be beneficial for me to address certain aspects of the history of our hospital. The Wagga Wagga Base Hospital is based on a 1930s design. During the latter half of the 1950s, the Minister for Health and the local member, with massive support from an ever-growing population, lobbied the New South Wales Health Commission to replace the outdated and defunct original hospital. The current building was completed in 1962. Over the years, our local hospitals across the region have been downgraded, and patient care has been moved to a regional referral centre at the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. Yet no effort has been made to do the works required in order for the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital to actually service a regional site and to have regional hospital status.

The original 110-bed facility was transformed into a 220-bed facility by making many single rooms into doubles. Then, of course, double rooms were made into quadruples. Whilst small-scale redevelopments have taken place since 1962, including projects such as the upgrading of accident and emergency, the hospital, located in the biggest inland city in New South Wales, has evolved into the referral point for 250,000 people. Yet it is still essentially the original 110-bed facility. It is almost unbelievable to think that this could continue to take place.

I am going to outline some of the issues because I think it is prudent of me to put this on the record. This outline comes courtesy of the Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser and it shows the reason the people are very upset about what has taken place over the years. In February 1980, $15 million was provided in the then Labor state government’s 1979-80 capital works program for a Wagga Wagga Base Hospital redevelopment program. The amount was intended to finance all phases of planning and construction. In September 1980, no money was allocated to the project in the government’s loan program. In November 1980, the government promised Wagga a new hospital, to be built on the corner of Red Hill Road and the Holbrook Road. Construction of a 250-bed hospital, costing $30 million, was to start in 1981. The then Premier Neville Wran said, ‘I see no reason why this site should not be prepared next year.’

In June 1981, the then minister for health confirmed that there was no specific allocation in the state budget for the promised Wagga hospital. In February 1982, the government scrapped any plans for a new hospital. The then minister said it was one of a number of projects scrapped because of a shortage of funds. He said that $300,000 worth of planning would proceed on redevelopment of the existing hospital. In April 1982, the government diverted the planning money to short-term renovations and improvements. In July 1982, more than 1,000 people attended a protest rally to complain about the government’s treatment of Wagga Wagga, including the dropping of the hospital plans.

In March 1988, the then opposition leader, Nick Greiner, pledged to continue to work on the hospital if the coalition were elected later in the month. After the coalition won the election, it said that the reinstatement of architects for work on the hospital would be a priority for the government. In June 1988, doubts arose over a $75 million upgrade of the hospital after the then minister for health told the hospital board the works had not been included in the former Labor government’s five-year works program. In July 1988, the acting regional health director, Brian Tutt, said that there would be no major redevelopment of the hospital for five years, but planning for $30 million worth of upgrading would continue. On 30 July 1988, the government said that $300,000 worth of planning would position the hospital for inclusion in the government’s 1992-93 capital works program. He then blamed the former government for the major redevelopment not going ahead, saying that that government had ‘checked out without paying its bills’. In October 1988, the hospital board was told by the secretary of the department of health that the redevelopment of the hospital had been set down for 1992-93 at a cost of $30 million.

There was no action between October 1988 and March 2003, when the state Labor government announced $400,000 for the planning of a new regional hospital at Wagga Wagga. On 9 March 2003, the opposition pledged to spend $90 million on a new hospital if they were elected. In October 2005, a value management study chose to build a new hospital on the existing site at an estimated cost of more than $220 million. In March 2007, specialists lashed out at the state government after the Greater Southern Area Health Service chief executive officer said that work on the hospital would not start before 2011 under current funding models and would not be finished before 2015. On 15 March 2007, 2,000 Riverina residents attended a public rally in Baylis Street in Wagga Wagga to demand a start to a new hospital that would be able to deal satisfactorily with the referrals and the way in which health was being run in the Riverina.

Successive state governments—and I am not here to run down any particular Labor government or the one that is still standing—have failed at every level of responsibility to provide a hospital capable of dealing with a catchment of around 250,000 people. Various problems have eventuated from these 27 years of broken promises. It is widely accepted that people in Wagga Wagga can be forced to spend days in the emergency department whilst a bed is found. Granted, every hospital in Australia does at times experience circumstances of overcrowding such as this, but they are not forced to contend with juggling 220 beds for a catchment of around 250,000 people. The hospital is the primary referral point for a radius of greater than 400 kilometres.

Amongst the many issues, here is a shortlist of the problems that are compounding day by day: antiquated facilities in children’s wards and bathrooms, sometimes making infection control very difficult; inadequate lighting in rooms, which limits accurate patient examination; outdated and inadequate beds, which were to be replaced in 2005; a lack of privacy in the renal dialysis unit; grossly inadequate physical facilities for pathology, radiology and other services; and inadequate bathrooms, toilets and basins—in many cases bathrooms are shared by male and female patients at the same time.

The facilities are inadequate. We have a major problem getting this message across. Riverina residents deserve better, the people of Wagga Wagga deserve better and the very committed and dedicated health professionals in the city of Wagga Wagga deserve better. Today I have raised the very significant issue of the plight of the Riverina people and their access to quality health care, particularly with the quality of a public hospital system that has seen successive governments—(Time expired)